


Carrot Cake Blues

by The_Warden



Series: The Food Stuffs Series [4]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Baking, Birthday Cake, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, Sherlock's Birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-07
Updated: 2015-01-07
Packaged: 2018-03-06 12:01:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3133748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Warden/pseuds/The_Warden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Molly invites Lestrade over to help her make a very important birthday cake... Sherlock's.</p>
<p>Basically, a fluff Molstrade piece that I wanted to post on Sherlock Holmes's birthday to commemorate the occasion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carrot Cake Blues

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Alter for helping me post this story before it's no longer Sherlock's birthday (with at least 20 minutes to spare! Woot!)

Lestrade hears a bunch of clattering coming from the kitchen as he steps into Molly’s apartment. “Molly?” he calls, surreptitiously brushing the pesky freezing rain droplets off his coat before pulling off his gloves. Lestrade takes off his coat, hangs it up, stuffs his faux leather gloves into one of its pockets, and hangs up his green woven scarf.

He notices a small pile of shoes by the door and stomps his feet on the welcome mat. Lestrade hastily removes his boots before stepping into the hallway. 

Molly’s flat is not big. It’s impossible for anyone to find a large place in London that doesn’t cost a small fortune every week. Lestrade takes about two steps down the hallway before the wall opens up to reveal Molly’s living room, which has a TV mounted on the wall to his left. On the right, her dark blue couch is smooshed up against the small island that divides the kitchen from the living room is littered with baking ingredients. 

Molly’s back is to Lestrade as he walks in. She seems to be focusing intently on making sure some more of her ingredients don’t fall over onto the floor. The kitchen is particularly cramped with her gas stove on her right, a very small sink with a tiny counter in front of her, and her refrigerator shoved up against the counter. It made the space difficult to navigate. 

“Molly?” Lestrade says again. 

He must have startled her because he sees her shoulders flinch. The open bag of flour that is teetering on the edge of her sink nearly falls to the floor, but she catches it. Unfortunately, she had been holding onto the, thankfully empty, mixing bowl. It falls from her grasp and lands hard on her toe.

She straightens up, while hopping on one foot, hissing through her teeth, her face screwed up in pain as she does so. “Hi, Greg.” she manages in a breathy voice. When she bends to pick up the bowl from the floor, he sees a mix of irritation and embarrassment on her face.

“What are you doing?” Lestrade asks as he walks slowly through her living room and stands between the refrigerator and the island. He hasn’t been to her flat since she moved in after Tom and her separated. He had found it strange that he had been invited over today. Lestrade wants to know what on earth is going on, Molly never struck him as the type that likes to bake. Or at least, she’d never said so before.

“I--um,” Molly hesitates, she hugs the mixing bowl  to her chest and drums her fingers on it as if she’s in deep thought. She seems unsure as to where to start in her explanation of what she is doing. “Baking a cake.”

“Is that what you’re doing?” Lestrade gives her a cheeky smile. “It looks like catastrophe struck your kitchen.”

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Molly says defensively. “I know exactly what to do.”

“Do you?” Lestrade asks as he gently takes the mixing bowl out of Molly’s vicegrip and puts the bowl in the sink. “From where I stand, it looks like you’re hopping around on one foot because you nearly broke your toe dropping a mixing bowl on it.”

Molly shoots him a look. “Well, not all of us have big kitchens to work with.”

Lestrade smiles at that. He looks at the ingredients and realizes what Molly is hoping to make. “Carrot cake?” he asks as his eyes land on an open kilo bag of carrots by the sink beside another, slightly smaller bowl full of coarsely shredded carrots.

Molly’s face quickly cracks into a bright smile. “Yes! I heard from John that it’s one of Sherlock’s favorites.”

“Sherlock?” Lestrade asks. He really is hoping that Molly did not just invite him over in order to help make a Declaration of Love cake for Sherlock.

“Yes,” Molly says with exasperation that Lestrade isn't understanding her intentions. “It’s his birthday tomorrow.”

Lestrade’s eyes widen in realization. He had completely forgotten.

Molly turns back to the sink, disappointment entering her shoulders as they slump forward a little as she begins to wash the bowl she dropped. “Oh well. No matter. I have a recipe on the fridge that I want to try.”

Thankful for the change of subject, Lestrade looks at the printed copy of a magazine recipe for a “Classic Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting” that is held up on the refrigerator by a magnet. He quickly scans it before saying, “This sounds really delicious.”

Molly has just finished wiping the bowl dry and sets the towel on the edge of the sink. She opens the still precariously placed flour bag and grabs for her measuring scoop when Lestrade steps forward and stops her hands. “Let me do that. You bought all this just for the cake, the least I can do is help you make it.”

Molly is clearly flustered by Lestrade’s close proximity. “W--well, the least I could do is measure out the flour o--or something.”

Lestrade smiles a little at Molly’s reaction, “You said it yourself, there really isn’t much in the way of space for everything. I’ll measure things. You just stand here with the bowl.”

“What? Don’t be ridiculous, we can make some space,” Molly begins to protest. However, her words fall on deaf ears, Lestrade is quickly and efficiently measuring out everything for the cake with only minimal reference to the recipe.

Molly eyes the recipe on the fridge as she continues to watch Lestrade. He was spot-on. “Do you have it memorized? How are you doing that?” she marvels.

“I used to bake for my daughter’s birthdays before the divorce. She likes carrot cake too,” Lestrade answers simply as he cracks four eggs into the batter. “There. Mix that all together now.” He hands her a wooden spoon from her utensil drawer. “I’ll put all the stuff we don’t need for the frosting away.”

Molly instructs Lestrade on where to put everything back as she dutifully stirs the batter together. He pulls out two, medium-sized, round baking tins in order to easily make a layered cake. She evenly distributes the batter between the two pans and places them in the oven that has been preheated to the proper temperature.

Lestrade sets the timer on his phone for fifty-five minutes. “Plenty of time to make the frosting.”

As Lestrade gets together all the ingredients for the frosting, he can’t help but notice that Molly is starting to look increasingly anxious. She keeps staring at the stove as if she’s worried it’s going to spontaneously combust.

As if she is losing an internal battle, she lets out a small groan before turning on the oven light to peek at the baking cakes.

“Molly? They’re fine. They haven’t been in there long. They still have another thirty minutes.” Lestrade says in what he hopes is a placating manner.

“I--I just don’t want them to get burnt,” Molly says quickly. “I’d hate to have to start all over. I’d have to get more carrots.” She gives a distracted half-smile as she scratches where her scrunchy is holding her hair back in a ponytail.

Lestrade crosses what little space is between them and puts a hand on Molly’s shoulder. “That’s not going to happen. Everything will be fine. The timer on my phone is set and you’re watching them like a hawk. If anything they might be underdone if your nerves get the better of you.”

Molly gives him a panicked look.

Lestrade makes a pained face realizing what he’d just said and gives the hand on her shoulder a small reassuring squeeze. “No, that’s not-- Molly, I was teasing. It’s going to be fine. Why are you so worried?”

Molly doesn’t answer right away as if she’s thinking intently about her answer. There’s a look that crosses her face as if she isn’t sure she wants to tell Lestrade the whole truth. However, her eyes soften as she sighs and reaches up to touch Lestrade’s hand on her shoulder, but she is unable to look at him.

“It’s important because no one has been there to remind Sherlock that he’s important to all of us for the past two years. And the wild stories about him getting arrested on Christmas… he almost made it three. I want, no, I need him to understand that even though he pretended to be dead and even though his best friend got married this past summer and they don’t see each other much, that I-- that we, still care about him.” Molly stops talking but is still avoiding Lestrade’s gaze.

“It has been an incredibly difficult year hasn’t it? Especially for you, Miss Molly Hooper,” Lestrade says before moving his hand from her shoulder to cup her cheek. He kisses Molly gently on the forehead before pulling her into a hug and kissing the top of her head as well. “Sherlock’s back from the dead. John and Mary’s wedding. You and Tom splitting up. Sherlock's back on drugs. Moving here. And god knows what is happening right now if even _half_ of those rumors about Christmas are true.”

Molly hugs Lestrade tightly, balling up her fists in his gray pullover. He can hear her breathing in deep as if she fighting to shut out all the bad memories of the past year and to keep herself from crying.

_Oh God, don’t cry!_ He thinks as he starts to panic. “Christ, Molly, I didn’t mean to make you upset.” Lestrade keeps hugging her, his heart beating wildly with guilt. Her forehead is resting on his shoulder comfortably. “It’s a lot when to stop and think about it, that’s all. You are one of the strongest people I know, though. You just power on through and you keep smiling even though you may not want to. I admire that about you.” Lestrade rested his cheek on the top of Molly’s head.

They stay that way, standing in front of the refrigerator, the cream cheese frosting ingredients lay forgotten on the kitchen island, until the timer on Lestrade’s phone goes off.

Molly quickly wipes a tear from her cheek as she opens the oven door. Lestrade feels the heat of the oven warm his toes, it’s nice.

Molly grabs an oven mitt hanging on the bottom cabinet drawer and pulls out the rack to check on the two cakes. They look a lovely golden color. She gives them a little pat and they spring right back up. “Perfect,” she cooes as she grabs a hand towel in order to safely remove the pans from the oven. She tips the cakes out of the tins and onto the waiting cooling racks with ease.

Lestrade quickly finishes making the cream cheese frosting and sets it aside as the cakes cool. He begins to help Molly clean up the rest of the kitchen by doing the dishes and putting them away.

“Thank you,” Molly says quietly as he puts away the last dish.

“It’s no trouble. That’s the drawback of baking. There’s always so much to clean up even if you don’t make a mess,” Lestrade smiles. The two of them are standing awfully close to each other again.

The air still feels strange, as if something is still not quite right between them. Molly lets out a long sigh, “I don’t mean just for today but for everything. You’re right, this past year hasn’t been particularly easy. Frankly, I was thrilled about New Years for the first time in nearly a decade. Fresh start and all that, you know?”

Lestrade can’t help but grin at this but he doesn’t say anything. He can see that Molly is still thinking about saying something because of the way she is avoiding his eyes again.

Molly tentatively looks up at Lestrade and he can’t help but think that her eyes are a beautiful brown. She places a hand on Lestrade’s shoulder for balance as she raises herself up just enough to give Lestrade a chaste kiss on the lips. “I mean it. Thank you for everything,” Molly says.

Lestrade tries to hide the surprise in his voice but his boyish grin gives away just how happy he is, “A--anytime, Miss Hooper, anytime.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have this head canon that Lestrade calls Molly, "Miss Molly Hooper/Miss Hooper" when he's excited or trying to comfort her. Hence why he calls her "Miss Hooper" at the end and not something familiar like, "Molly."


End file.
